Russian Satellite Falling Uncontrolled – Landing Location Impossible to Predict

Written by Marko on February 23, 2008

Only few days ago we followed how US Navy destroyed American falling and malfunctioning spy satellite USA 193 by shooting a tactic missile. Now there is another satellite falling uncontrolled. This time it is a Russian malfunctioning satellite, called Kosmos 2430 rkt. The Russian space debris is going to enter the atmosphere already in few days.

The falling Russian satellite was photographed in last Tuesday night in Finland, reports Avaruus.Fi, a Finnish astronomy magazine. The falling satellite Kosmos 2430 rkt was captured by a camera of Finnish fireball research group. In the picture one can see about 60 degrees arc, which has maximum brightness of -1 magnitudes, which is comparable to the brightness of Sirius. The falling satellite was captured by another Finnish camera as well. Based on the data from these two different sources, the altitude of the satellite was estimated to be only 207 kilometers.

Finnish astronomers started to find out what is going on. Soon they found out that the target is a Russian falling satellite, Kosmos 2430 rkt, which is a debris of the rocket launched in October 2007. This uncontrolled falling Russian space debris was also noticed abroad and it is expected to fall in few days.

The location and time where the Russian space debris is going to fall is impossible to predict because the density of the atmosphere alternates much. The most probable touchdown time is the Monday-Tuesday night at Eastern European Time. It is possible that the satellite will drop to Finland, but it is not probable. The falling space debris has a diameter of two meters, but most of the satellite will burn in the atmosphere.

Even though an uncontrolled falling satellite is always a risk, it is also an interesting and rare object for astronomers. During the weekend many Finnish amateur and professional astronomers spend their nights outside waiting for Kosmos 2430 rkt to fly across the sky.

Original source of the news is Avaruus.Fi website.

You can watch Kosmos 2430 rkt orbiting in Heavens-Above.Com website.

If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to our daily RSS Feed or Email Newsletter. This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com!

Comments

02-27-2008
11:08 am

lotusflower

The race towards conquering galactic space brings countries like Russia and the U.S.A. to send their giant search toys out there. If only humans would just learn to take care of mother earth by using its resources more judiciously, then things such as this need not happen.

Cheers!
02-27-2008
3:16 pm

marko

I totally agree with you, lotusflower. Science is interesting and needed, but first we should take care of our planet and people. Then science.
03-05-2008
5:16 am

seville

space doesn’t have infinite space
09-02-2008
4:10 pm

satellite

Thanks for the informative post.. and thanks for adding our comment to the blog.
01-10-2009
1:16 am

ryan

wow i saw a satilight because im eighty four and when i was eighteen i was in a war and the earth had a problem with a falling satilght , for any news go on hotmail an send a messege to olivers_2k8_@hotmail.com x